Paul Testifies Before King Agrippa

November 4, 2012 Background Scripture: Acts 25, 26 Lesson Passage: Acts 26:19 – 32 King Agrippa was a member of the Herod family. His great-grandfather, Herod the Great, ruled the entire region of Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth. The Herod family was well connected politically in the Roman Empire. After the death of Herod the Great, the region was divided into four areas referred to as tetrarchs. Herod’s three sons each ruled an area. The ruling members of the Herod family appear to have been politically astute and managed to resolve matters of political unrest locally rather than allow them to become a problem for the capital city of Rome. It is no surprise then that great effort was made to try to resolve the matter between the Jews and Paul. The contention between the two was threatening to cause civil unrest because of their religious differences. After the political shenanigans of Felix—who was trying to make money as a result of this ordeal—Paul was kept imprisoned for two years. Paul’s case was remanded to Festus who replaced Felix. Festus had hoped to keep the peace by granting the Jews’ request to allow them to try Paul in their religious court before the Sanhedrin Council. To this, Paul objected and demanded that his case be referred to Rome seeing that he was a Roman citizen. This presented a serious problem for Festus since there were no Roman laws which had been violated and therefore no justification for this citizen of the Roman Empire to be imprisoned for two years. Adding to the confusion for Festus was what seems to be a lack of religious knowledge concerning Judaism and Christianity. Festus had a legal dilemma. He did not understand the religious arguments against Paul and yet there were no Roman laws violated by Paul. Festus had no way of writing a legal statement to be sent along with Paul to Rome where his appeal would be heard. Legally, Festus could not deny Paul’s request to be tried in Rome but Festus did receive another opportunity to at least obtain a legal summary to be put in the form of a letter to Rome. That opportunity came some days later when King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to visit Festus. After Festus reviewed the background of the case with King Agrippa, King Agrippa agreed to interview Paul. At last, Festus had hoped to receive some legal charges to justify Paul’s imprisonment and referral to Rome. Today’s lesson centers on the closing of Paul’s argument before King Agrippa and his royal court and their response to Paul’s argument. Paul continued to demonstrate his worthiness to speak in his own defense both against the religious accusations of the Jewish leaders as well as touching the law of the Roman Empire. Festus, seemingly confused by Paul’s religious testimony, interrupted Paul and accused him of being so intelligent that he had literally loss his mind. The things that Paul spoke of seemed to be impossible but yet Paul was known to be an intelligent person. Maybe this embarrassed Festus before his royal guests and therefore he sought to put an end to it. Paul responded to Festus’ unbelief but continued to press his case to King Agrippa whom Paul knew to be a religiously astute person who no doubt was aware of the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Those events had not happened in secret but were all public knowledge. Surely the ruling family was aware of it. King Agrippa did not find fault with Paul’s defense yet he did not hazard himself by standing in the way of the legal process. Robert C. Hudson October 26, 2012